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Mandeville Weekly News

CYBERCRIME A MAJOR GLOBAL THREAT

Minister of Justice, Hon. Delroy Chuck, says cybercrime is a major global threat that represents a clear and present danger to democracies and the rule of law everywhere.Minister Chuck said there is an urgent need for the strengthening of international cooperation and the harmonisation of policy and legislative instruments in the criminal justice system to combat the threat. “Mobile fraud has increased by 173 per cent between 2013 and 2015 and while mobile transactions are growing, fraud is growing at an even faster clip. In 2015, 45 per cent of all transactions originated from the mobile channel, while 61 per cent of fraud attempts were made from a mobile device,” he noted.

He said that cybercrime costs are projected to reach US$2 trillion worldwide by 2019 and the cybersecurity products and services market is expected to grow from US$75 billion in 2015 to US$175 billion by 2020. “We are confronting a boundless and borderless threat and an unprecedented threat to the global economy and global security,” he stressed.
Minister Chuck, who was addressing the 4th North American and Caribbean International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) Conference on November 3, said that in light of the challenges, societies cannot now afford for a fragmentation of cybercrime laws, divergence of procedural powers, lack of access to extraterritorial data by law enforcement authorities and ineffective international cooperation mechanisms.

He said that legal luminaries everywhere must be bold in considering options to strengthen the legal, institutional, investigative and prosecutorial mechanisms to combat cybercrime “We have to face the realities, the challenges and do what is necessary to ensure the protection of our communities. We cannot afford for the criminals to beat us. That is something we should not even try to fathom, as the consequences would be too grave to even contemplate,” he argued.